Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-12-10
CHAPTER XVI.
or1IEn PRISONERS BROUGHT IN.

Atloc.s A'iscSehA ~
These most reasonable circumstances
produced no effect, and were not an
swered. On came the new victims, clam
boring slowly-there We're three of them
us men chained together were obliged to
do when on such q road. stationed my
self at the foot Of the ladder, and made
to them solne such safe remark rs, ''This
Is q hard place to come on and in n mo-
mcnt found my hand caught in Il warm,
strong grasp, and ''PiLtcngcr,'' Ross"
was mutually whispered. 1t WAS An
drews, Wollum and Ross. l had seen
them chained in front of Lcadbettcr's
room. Now they were here, and the Scnsc
Of misfortune seemed lishtcncd by half,
10 die in the company of friends was bet
ter than to die alone. l piticd them and
wished them free; Dut it was far better to
bs confined together than for us to en-
durc the same suffering in separation. \
whisper more to Ross brought me the in
formation that they had given their names
and character. / told my story md llp
Kind Of q place into which we had come,
while they gave Inc the history Of their
adventures since We had parted III lcav-
ing the train, There was SO much to tell
OF he past three days history this was
Monday evening" that we did not do much
more in making the acquaintance Of the
East Tennesseeans that night. The latter
kindly allowed us TO take n cornc close to
one Of the window holes, where we could
the more readily converse. Ross and
Wollam agreed with me hat our best
course would be to claim, with all our
strength, to he detailed Union soldiers,
not denying what we really did-only
claiming that we were not volunteers, but
were ordered on this expedition with no
choice, and simply obcyed orders. An
irews also approved, but said that his
case was separate from ours and much
worse.
An hour or two passed in such CONVEX
%sation, not altogether unpleasantly, and
it came time to sleep. y soldier is not
particular in such matters, but never had
| been placed in such a situation as this.
Laying down in the woods uusheltcrcd
from the pouring rain was bad enough,
but this was far worse. The night before
in the Lafayette Jail / had abundance OF
room, air and blankets. The lattice cage
was Il palace in comparison with this
enough, though we had no bedding what
ever; in fact, one Of the first things we
did was to disrobe as far as our irons
would permit. Many Of the East Tcnnes-
seeans who were not fettered were en-
tirely naked, because of the intense heat.
But we adjusted ourselves in our corner
80 that our chains might cramp US as little
as possible, and, ceasing to talk, were
soon asleep. The others in the room were
already unconscious. The one advantage
of the terribly close atmosphere was thai
the great heat and the slow carbonic acid
poisoning from the impure air rendered
slumbcr easy, and we found little trouble
in sleeping early and late. The arranging
for rest required very nice adjustment,
and il any one wanted TO change his posi-
ton he was sure to rouse all who were
near him; or, il he rose up to go for a
drink, he had to take along those who
were chained to him, and was apt to tread
on his neighbors, which gave rise to some
warm alterations, with the result Of still
further Disturbing on- sIn,ahers.